Credits: The Unicode Consortium
Apple regularly updates the emoji on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other devices according to the Unicode Consortium’s catalog changes. We might see seven new emojis introduced in late 2024 or early 2025.
The next set of emoji characters under consideration includes a face with bags under eyes, fingerprint, leafless tree, root vegetable, harp, shovel, and splatter.
The Unicode Consortium has begun the beta review period for Unicode 16 today, which features these new emoji characters. The beta period will run until July 2, after which Unicode 16 will be released and the new characters officially approved.
Smartphone makers like Apple typically take several months to design the artwork for newly approved emoji. Therefore, it’s likely we won’t see these new characters until after the launch of iOS 18, probably around March 2025, coinciding with the release of iOS 18.4.
Apple’s most recent addition of new emoji came with the iOS 17.4 update in March 2024. This update included characters such as a lime, an edible brown mushroom, a phoenix, a broken chain, a head shaking vertically (as in a “yes” nod), and a head shaking horizontally (a “no” head shake).